Dont read this if your squemish, I have 25 free range hens, which have a large pen, they stay in the pen/run till lunch time then they are allowed

[alinic]

to roam free till about 10pm, then they got back in pen/run hen house.
They roam in the fields and wood.
Now the question is, this morning we had a call from one of our friends whom we give eggs to, said two eggs that he cracked open where full of blood and had half grown embryo in it?(yeach) any how as we dont have a cock, how cld this be? cld it be possible for a cock pheasant as there is some about here?
Thanks

[lankeela]

I remember seeing on tv a little while ago that they eat them as a delicacy in some countries - found this but it is ducks rather than chickens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg)

[Old_Geezer]

Would your hen's name happen to be Mary ?

[wildwood]

lol at Old-Geezer.

It takes about 5 days of incubation before the layperson recognises an embryo as such, before that it is a 'spiderweb' of bloodvessels. So if it is an embryo, these eggs have escaped your attention.

With some breeds of chickens there is not a very obvious visual difference between the hen and cock.

Sometimes a bird does pass what appears to be a foreign object or a small blood clot in an egg.

Or, someone is playing a trick on you.